How To Select the Right Web Design Consultant for Your Stone Fabricator Company
To select the right web design consultant for your stone fabricator company, consider your needs and goals, look at their portfolio, make sure they specialize in your industry, check reviews and testimonials, and consider value-added services.
As more millennials become homeowners, the need for stone fabrication services is increasing. And the first place they look when they require services is online.
However, having an online presence that attracts new customers is not as simple as making a website and having a social media presence. Your success relies heavily on how you showcase your brand and services online.
That means your website needs to be world-class, along with your marketing efforts. To develop a competitive website that exudes professionalism and inspires trust, it’s best to hire a web design consultant to assist with the entire process.
Planning a website, creating its design from scratch, and developing it require a lot of knowledge and expertise. Finding the right web design consultant can be hard when so many options are available.
In this article, we’ll tell you how to choose the right web design consultant for your stone fabricator company.
Let’s dive right in.
The Web Design Process Explained
Before we talk about choosing the right web design consultant, it’s essential to understand the web design process.
There are five main steps in any web design process, and here’s how each step helps you:
Now that you understand the benefits of each step, here’s the process you can expect for a typical web design project:
Step 1. Research and Set Goals
The first step is always to research your organization and competitors, and identify your goals. As mentioned above, a complete ground-up analysis helps establish a foundation to build on.
Based on your current standing in the industry, a SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, and various other checks are conducted. This provides an outlook on how your current website is doing in your locality.
If you don’t have a website yet, the emphasis is on other stone fabrication business websites. This tells us what you will need for your website to work.
It also helps create a vision for growth and understand marketing requirements.
Based on this, your consultant creates business goals. These goals then dictate your strategy and solution, and how to showcase it on your website and in your marketing efforts.
Step 2. Emphasize a Solution
As a stone fabricator company, what’s your number-one service or solution that sets you apart from your competition?
To create a strategy for your new website, you need to emphasize a single solution that you can do best. That is why it’s recommended to specialize in a single solution and create your offering around it.
That said, stone fabrication includes several services, so you do need to mention them too. However, figure out why your stone fabrication services are different from what your competitors offer. You may use different tools or have certain experts, or they may be another factor that differentiates you.
Your web design consultant will help you decide this and then build a strategy that captures it.
Step 3. Create a Wireframe and Prototype
The next step is to create a complete wireframe and sitemap to determine how your website should work.
Wireframing and sitemap creation are about creating a good user interface and experience. Anyone can create a website, but a web design consultant will help you create a tailored experience for your stone fabrication business.
The idea is to make it easily navigable while including multiple conversion points.
This reduces future paid advertising and outreach costs.
Based on your emphasized solution, a custom landing page is designed. This landing page focuses on your solution and how it’s better to opt for it.
Wireframing and prototyping help streamline the landing page and the rest of the website.
Step 4. Design the Website and Develop It
After you have a blueprint, the next step is to design your website and add relevant visual elements, along with the web copy and content.
Since you already have a prototype, you only need to add relevant designs and do the coding.
At this point, you have a solid research foundation and user experience journey. Therefore, the only thing left to do is figure out how you want your website to look.
In the stone fabrication business, visuals are crucial. But how you present those visuals is up to you.
The web design consultant will provide recommendations based on your business analysis. Using that, you finalize the design, theme, and visuals.
Then, your website goes into development.
Step 5. Test Your Website and Launch
When you have a final website up and ready, you need to test it to discover and address any technical issues before it goes live.
Testing your website features ensures the user experience works as you want for your customers.
It also helps weed out any outstanding development and design issues beforehand.
Once the website is up, the web design consultant implements online growth tools. These allow your website’s ranking to improve in the SERPs.
You can use tools like Ahrefs and Moz to deploy an online growth strategy that ensures the long-term growth of your website.
How To Choose the Right Web Design Consultant for Your Stone Fabricator Company
Now that you understand the web design process, you can better understand what it takes to make the right choice.
When choosing a web design company or consultant, it’s important to know exactly what you need. You need to find someone who has an in-depth understanding of your needs and the industry.
After that, take a look at their past work and online reviews to help you make your decision.
Keep in mind that you can book a session with the consultant to determine if you’re a good fit. Companies and consultants that encourage this practice are already one step ahead.
In any case, here are the things to look out for when making your selection:
1. Consider Your Needs and Goals
Having a good idea of what your needs and goals are will help you choose the right web design consultant. This is because you’ll know exactly what services you’ll require.
Determine what you want your website to do for you and what features you want it to have.
Is the sole purpose of your website to generate leads? Do you want to establish a brand using content marketing efforts? Do you want to integrate automation tools?
Make a list of all the things you want your website to do for your stone fabrication business. Here are a few to get you started.
- Complete sitemap and user-friendly navigation
- Landing page dedicated to a unique solution
- Multiple conversion points
- Online forms
- Security certificates
- Optimized content
When you have your list, arrange them into goals, needs, and things that would be nice to have on your website but aren’t necessary.
2. Look at Their Portfolio
A strong portfolio and a list of case studies that show the success of past projects is always a good sign.
Every good web design consultant will have a strong portfolio backing them. However, you need to see which ones have a background in stone fabrication businesses. Also consider how long they have been working as a consultant.
Then, take a look at their portfolio to get a sense of their skills and expertise. Here are some things to ask yourself as you look through their portfolios:
- Are the sites easily navigable?
- What kinds of visuals do the websites use?
- Are the websites mobile-friendly?
- How similar are the websites in their portfolio? Check the imagery, theme, structure, and navigation. If most of their projects look the same, that’s a red flag.
- Have their projects won awards?
These things allow you to determine how good they are beyond their portfolio. It gives insight into their total experience, coding abilities, creativity, and ability to encompass each client’s wishes.
On the off chance that a consultant does not have a portfolio, don’t disregard them completely. Instead, ask them what they can do for your business. You never know where you may find a good fit.
3. Make Sure They Specialize in Your Industry
This is crucial because the web design consultant needs to understand your industry and work deeply to provide good advice and services.
Someone who already understands the stone fabrication industry is the ideal web design consultant.
If they have worked with other clients in the industry, it’ll give you insight into how they work. It will also give you an idea of what your competitors are doing, allowing you to better differentiate yourself.
This does not mean you should ignore other clients they’ve worked with.
If a web design consultant doesn’t specialize in your industry but everything else checks out, it may be a good idea to have a meeting with them. However, do this only if you have a good understanding of the current industry and online trends.
4. Check Reviews and Testimonials
Reviews and testimonials will give you a good picture of the web design consultant’s abilities and track record. If possible, connect with one of their past clients and get direct feedback.
You can typically find reviews and testimonials on sites like G2. However, if you don’t find reviews on such sites, you can always Google them.
There’s a good chance you’ll find some reviews on forums and discussion sites. You can also find reviews on Facebook and Yelp. However, the best place to look for reviews and testimonials is LinkedIn.
If you can connect with previous clients, you can gain in-depth feedback and unfiltered information on each consultant’s services.
5. Consider Value-Added Services
Check what other services each web design consultant provides. Value-added services can be anything from custom website themes to full-fledged services.
For example, a web design consultant that can also provide search engine marketing services is a good choice. That’s because after your website is up, they can help you scale it.
A good content marketing and SEO strategy are crucial to improving your website’s ranking. And a better ranking equals more leads.
Therefore, it’s important for a web design consultant to provide additional services. It will also be more convenient for you since you can get multiple services from the same consultant.
Other services that may be useful include web development services and design services.
Conclusion
Once you jot down a few options, come up with a list of questions and have them ready. Then start approaching web design consultants.
However, you’ll have to approach each consultant differently. For example, if they have ample experience in the stone fabrication industry, your questions will be about their expertise and your business.
On the other hand, if they have a strong portfolio but don’t necessarily specialize in the stone fabrication industry, you’ll have to ask industry-related questions to gauge how well they can work.
In any case, it’s important to set up a 30-minute meeting for a complete discussion.
That’s why EBS works best as a web design consultant for your stone fabrication business. We understand the stone fabrication industry, specialize in web design, and provide marketing services.